Love is forever
1 Corinthians 13:8-13 · Vern Peterman · Dec 13, 2009
1 & 2 Corinthians, No. 27
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926149554038

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to be pacing our way through the passage that Courtney just read for us here. I have a few preliminaries, however, to bring to your attention. Some of the things just have to do with the time of year and season and whatnot. I just have to caution you that there are things about this season that you ought to keep in mind.

A lot of people get really agitated over the money that people seem to burn through. And so that's just something to kind of get perspective on. The other thing is, of course, there's a busy time with shopping and going places and things of that sort. So be careful. There's people out there who do all sorts of crazy things when it's time to go parking. So anyway, you just have to keep that in mind because, well, it'll get your attention.

The other thing is take time to relax. You might find it real helpful. Take time for recreational activities of some sort. That's fine. Whatever it takes to kind of change the pace and blow off some steam, that's great. Teach your baby to read, whatever you like. But just kind of keep some perspective on the season. So anyway, I just encourage that. The other thing to bring your attention, a quite different character, we have, believe it or not, just three weeks from today, the time period when our new electives start, that's next year, the 3rd of January.

So we bring these before you. We've presented them previously in the sign-up sheets or in the lobby. We've had some sign up already. If you've not done so and intend to take part in those, we'd appreciate your signing up. That'll help immensely as we go to plan having materials. Some of these classes have materials that have to be printed up at the outset. And so that's helpful. The other thing is knowing where certain people are going to be, how many people are going to be in the classes.

So anyway, I encourage you to give some thought to that if you haven't done so. One other thing, and that is that we have... some supplemental handouts, as well as a sheet that looks kind of like this. I don't expect you to read the detail on this. Those of you who have been here have seen the sheet.

This portion of it lists the spiritual gifts. We have them broken down into two categories, the apostolic era gifts and those of the church age, that is, of our present time. And one of the questions that was asked of me recently, and I think is a very good question, Are these all of the spiritual gifts? So that's a good and appropriate question. I would answer, I believe the answer is yes. And one reason why I think it is yes is because we would need to know.

In some cases, these gifts are brought up in the list of gifts that we've presented every single time, that is repeatedly. And so in many of the lists, it's redundant. And the other thing is, if a gift were not listed, how would you know whether you had it or what it looked like? So I think it makes good sense to answer to say, yes, the number of gifts that are listed are those that the Lord has intended and made available.

Now, your handout has a little bit different from the usual format, and that's for a good reason. I don't recommend that you read it all sideways. It's in a nine-slide-per-page format in order to get a couple more slides in without going to an extra page. So, if you'll adjust yourselves to that, I think it'll work just fine. So, you'll have it two pages, nine on each side.

The first two slides in your handout show the passage similar to what we did last week in a kind of poetic form. And what we've done is have indents and try to line things up so that you'll see the poetic structure that Paul wrote. And I think that's one of the reasons that this chapter is so well-liked when it comes to either artistic expressions, people put it on posters. We showed last week people put it on rings and jewelry. People have this passage read at weddings and things of that sort. It has intentionally a poetic structure to it. And so we've put it in a poetic structure pattern here in the first two slides in your handout.

I bring that to your attention because we're going to be referring back to it from time to time and the poetic pattern and structure is laid out so that you can easily identify certain things. Here's the way the first one looks, and you'll see repetition of certain patterns.

Example, will be done away as three times on verses 8, 9, and 10. And in part shows up three times in verses 9 and 10. Some of your translations will say the partial or something of that sort. In fact, in the original language, it's in part. It's the exact same thing each time.

And one of the things you'll notice is, as Paul has previously said, you guys are looking to have special gifts, and you guys focus on particular ones. He does focus on those here, and that's prophecy and tongues and knowledge. He deals particularly with those gifts, not only in last week's passage, but again in this week's passage. And so we'll be certainly looking at that.

One of the other things you see is a repetition in verse 11 about a child and then reference to a childish things. There's also in verse 12 the repeated reference to in part. So we will be referring back to that pattern a couple of times. One of the things to bring to summary here is that this passage, verses 8 through 13, is all about how long certain things last. and what lasts forever, and what's of value.

In other words, one of the problems that the Corinthians were having is they were saying, I value this and I value that. Oh, this is very valuable. I have this gift and therefore that makes me more valuable. And he's saying you don't understand what's of ultimate value. And that's why he wrote this. He wants them to understand what's of ultimate value.

What's going to last? The specific things that Paul addresses about how long they last are these. First of all, the spiritual entities of faith, hope and love. That trio of words shows up several times in the New Testament, Paul's letters and on into the writings of Peter. Certainly all very important and valuable things.

Think about it. How are you saved? By faith, right? So how could you say it's anything but important? Certainly it's important. But Paul will show why love is even more valuable, and more important, and most important of all, enduring. The spiritual gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge, that trio of spiritual gifts that seems to be at the center of the Corinthians' focus, is what he's going to continue to bring into perspective in this passage here.

Here we see in this passage, verses 8 through 10, never, okay? By the way, that means never, right? Even though you're not supposed to say never, ever. It's never. But also in the next passage, something really pops out. When, when, now, then, now, then, now. This is about time. This is about This time, and then that time, and when, okay? So timing is critical in this passage. What's going to last? What isn't? When is this going to drop off? When is that going to continue on, et cetera? Now, then, and never, and forever. Those are the issues in this passage.

Paul presents these things in this way. because the believers in Corinth were valuing certain things, valuing certain entities, and valuing certain gifts that they didn't realize they're going to end. They're going to stop. There will be an end. But they weren't valuing love, which Paul makes abundantly clear is the most important thing of all.

That would last forever. We've talked about the content and the theme of the passage here, starting with chapter 12, continuing on into chapter 14, which will continue on actually into the beginning of the new year. He addresses the fulfillment of or the ceasing or the end of faith and hope and tongues and prophecy and knowledge in this passage.

Those things. He does not, however, address the end of love. Why? It doesn't end. Paul's pattern of verbs and voice and nouns here is quite remarkable. We've pointed it out in some degree in the poetic patterns that we've set out there. And we'll pay attention to that as we step our way through the passage here. The final message, and he ends the chapter with, love lasts forever.

So love is the greatest of these things. And one of the points that we'll want to have left in your mind is why is love the greatest? Not because it gives us some gushy feeling in our heart, although that may be true. Love is the greatest because of all these things.

It is part of God's own character. That's why it will last. The New Testament says explicitly, God is love. That's why love is eternal. That's why it's forever. That's why it lasts. Now, this passage certainly has patterns. We'll be going through those and stepping into them. One of the things it says very clearly is, love does not end, though faith and hope do fall off or end.

The spiritual gifts of prophecy, tongues, knowledge, and specifically here, prophecy and knowledge, they also end. And he uses a particular word there in the original language, and usually your translations carry across that fairly consistently, to say how and when those will end. The spiritual gift of tongues ends as well, although it ends, and Paul uses a different word to say that it ends. Paul chose three different words that mean to fall off or end or cease or terminate with prophecy and knowledge, love, and faith.

By love, I mean love does not end. And Paul used a different voice in these. But what I mean by voice, active voice, doing something actively, middle voice, doing something with the action coming upon yourself, or passive, receiving the action. He used deliberately a different voice with each one of these words, too. One of the points we want to make here, and I think it's a critical one, the first and the last subject in this passage is love.

What most translations miss, and I've included it in that poetic form that you've got there, is the definite article in front of love. In the original language in which this was written, the definite article is an emphasis on THE love. That love that you're missing. That love that's going to last forever. THE love that is a part of God's character. That's the kind of love I'm talking about.

And so, in the original language, THE love, each time, at the beginning and at the end. He's putting emphasis upon it. Emphasis by repetition. Emphasis by starting and ending with love. Emphasis by the definite article. The love. Yeah, that love. It is Paul's focal point in this passage here. The love. That love. God's love. The essential love. The love that you can't do without. Paul's point is not that love doesn't fail versus succeeding. Many, as they read this, will misunderstand that. They'll oftentimes simply read it along with the rest of love is and love is not, love doesn't. In fact, he's making a separate point. There is no end of love. That's the point. There is no end of it.

Christ, who loved and gave Still loves. Still loves. And his loving and his giving still has effect. And by the way, how long will Christ's loving and giving on our behalf have effect? Forever. Right? Love is forever. Love never ends. Love never falls off. We're going to see the other things in this passage that do end. And faith, hope, and gifts of tongues, prophecy, and knowledge all come to an end. Love does not. This love never fails, which again is not the opposite of success. What it means is love never falls out. Love never drops out.

Some of you may recall the story of Eutychus in Acts 20 verse 9. Eutychus, as you may recall, was the fellow who fell out of the third-story window because Paul got long-winded. Hopefully none of that happens to anybody here this morning. Especially any third-story windows.

I don't think we have any. But that's the kind of word that it is. This love never fails is love never drops out. I don't mean to be quite so literal. It's not love never falls out of a window. But love never drops out. Love never falls off. It keeps going.

Why? Because it's God's character. So we have it in this drawing, if you will, this graphic. Love continues. Now the way he puts it here in verse 8 and 13, and I'm kind of putting these two sets of verses together to draw this truth. Love, faith, and hope. Those three put in the order of faith, hope, and love. Those now remain. All three of those are now with us, aren't they? As they were in Paul's day. Faith, hope, and love remain. But of those three, love is the one that never falls off. In contrast, faith and hope fall off when they are fulfilled by seeing Him. Love never falls off in time, but faith and hope both fall off.

Now, I don't want you to brand me as a heretic or burn me before the service is over because I say faith and hope are going to end. Okay? I hope you're not upset with me. You're okay now, aren't you? Okay. But faith and hope do fall off. Right now, faith, hope, and love, they all remain with us. So it's okay. Right? Faith does meet its end. We give you a few different passages there, 2 Corinthians 5-7, which we'll eventually get to, 1 Peter 8-9, Hebrews 12-2, and there's some others, but that's good for starters. Faith meets its end.

We have faith that the Lord will take us to be with Him. Will that someday come to an end? Yeah. Because He will do it. And it won't be a matter of our having faith. I have faith that He's going to take me with Him. Well, it'll be a done deal. You won't need to have faith. It'll be accomplished. Similar to that and parallel to that is hope. As believers, we have a certain hope.

And that's very important, a distinction to make. Why do I say that? When I say, I have a hope, As a matter of fact, Paul writes to Titus and he says, it's a blessed hope. I have a certain blessed hope that the Lord will take me home to be with Him. That's not an I hope so. I hope the Lord will do it. I have a fixed hope. That hope is always there. I need never lose hope. But there will come a day, as much as Paul calls it the blessed hope, There will come a day when that hope will be fulfilled. Because we'll be with Him.

Nancy and I have now been married for 36 years. I don't say, boy, I hope to be married to Nancy someday. There was a time when that was fulfilled. And that's similar here. Faith and hope fall off not because they're not of value, they're of great value. But they simply have a time of fulfillment.

There will be a time when you and I as believers will see the Lord ourselves. 1 John, he says, we will be like Him for we will see Him as He is. Our faith in what that verse says and our hope, it's a certain hope, not an I hope so hope. Faith and hope will both be fulfilled in seeing Him.

But both the spiritual gifts of prophecy and knowledge, it says, and it's rather consistent with this, will be done away from an outside event or action. That's because it's in the passive voice. An outside event or action will do away with those gifts. Why? Think about it.

Put yourself in the position of those in the early church. They had the Old Testament, yes. But they had, maybe at best, a half-dozen books, including the one Paul is writing right here, of the New Testament. There was a lot about how things ought to be in the church. There was a lot about who are they in Christ. We spend time in electives studying.

They had never heard of yet. And so, they did not have the New Testament. And so, how did God fill in that need? He had special gifts that were fitting for that apostolic era when few New Testament books were available. Imagine, the book of Ephesians had not been written yet.

These people had not... the scripture in front of them that said, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. They hadn't seen that yet. You've been seated with Christ in the heavenlies. They had not seen that yet. You have a heavenly citizenship out of Philippians. They hadn't seen that yet.

So how did they find out New Testament truth? God gave these temporary gifts. Were they needed? Absolutely. The New Testament had not been completed. But there would be a time when the need for those gifts would be fulfilled. Both these would be done away by an outside action.

Both the spiritual gifts of prophecy and knowledge are also said to be, and quite consistently, in part. They're part of the picture. They give a part of the insight because the New Testament was not completed. They give a part of the insight, an interim tool of the Lord, in order to give the Church truth that it needed before the New Testament was done. The spiritual gifts of prophecy and knowledge both served that temporary purpose, since only a few books of the New Testament had been completed at that time. About a half dozen at most. So they had these temporary gifts which were very valuable at the time.

One of the key issues in this passage, one that various people who comment and teach on this wrestle with, and that is what is what is typically translated the perfect? The Greek word translated perfect can have three meanings. Of course we have, that shouldn't be confusing, we have words that have even more meanings than that in our own language. If I spell out to you the letters B-O-W, okay, You might say, well, which one do you mean?

This time of year, we put a B-O-W on presents, right? A bow. We might even have a present that somebody gets that is a bow for their violin or to shoot arrows with. We would also have a bow that is a bend in the river and on and on. A B-O-W might also spell out the sound that a dog makes. We don't know until we hear the context, do we? If I say bow and arrow, you immediately have enough context to know what kind of bow I mean. If I say bow and violin, you have enough context to know what kind of meaning that I have in mind. Same thing with this. Three meanings.

It's been translated the perfect in the New American Standard in the King James. But there are these two other meanings, which I think are in fact indicated in the context, and one is the idea of completion, something being completed over time, and then maturity. And in fact, what we'll see as we go through this passage is that the last two are actually the themes that he brings out very deliberately and clearly in the passage. And so you have on your first couple of slides there where I put it in poetic form, you have completion and maturity in the place of where the perfect is usually put. Since the passage has in part four times, and verse 11 is about maturity, Paul intended the Word to convey completion and maturity, both of those themes.

The understanding of the meaning of the Word is governed by the context of the Word. So the completion of the New Testament would do away with the need for the gifts of prophecy and knowledge. Why? They were there as an interim solution because the New Testament was still being assembled.

And by the way, the apostles themselves even made sure that these things were being distributed around. Remember, Paul wrote to the church at Colossae, and what did he say? Have this read at the church at Hierapolis and Laodicea. Oh, and by the way, have the letter that I wrote to Laodiceans read to the Colossians. That kind of distribution. When Paul writes to Timothy, he quotes Luke.

So there's this copying and distribution that was going on, even under the apostles' direction and knowledge. But nonetheless the New Testament was still not complete and so prophecy and knowledge were very valid and valuable gifts during a time when the New Testament was only partially assembled. Isn't it very interesting that, and I was talking with Mike about this some months back, very interesting that the letters of the New Testament that tell us that we're seated in the heavenlies, the letters in the New Testament that tell us we have a heavenly citizenship, and that tell us to set our minds on things above were not written until 30 years after Christ ascended. These ideas were things that took time to be written down and then to be circulated. Certainly it's appropriate during that time that the Lord would grant to the church gifts of prophecy and knowledge and other gifts of revelation as an interim measure.

Completely fitting. Makes perfect sense. Here we have in the last half, you have this on slide two I think, speak like a child, think like a child, and reason like a child. These are again references to tongues and knowledge and prophecy. These are comparisons he's making to maturity. And by the way, Paul was prone to making various comparisons to maturity.

It's from his writings substantially that we get the idea of maturing spiritually, spiritual growth. When he writes to the church at Ephesus in chapter 4 of the book of Ephesians, what does he do? He talks about growing up into the Lord. He even talks about growing away from the childhood characteristics of being vulnerable to winds of doctrine and trickery. So he makes this comparison here. It's common to the way Paul wrote. Childhood has certain characteristics. Growing into maturity has certain characteristics. And he makes that clear here. The completion and the maturity theme comes across this way.

In verse 11, Paul's point is that the church, by means of the completed Word of God, the complete New Testament, all the books of the New Testament, all 27 of them, would bring the church to a place of growing out of the need for the gifts that once were fitting and necessary and valuable. When the church was like a child, it needed them. But now, with everything complete, it would do away with them, and the completion itself would do away with those gifts. In verse 12, he talks about seeing in a mirror dimly and then seeing face to face.

It turns out that among all the areas of the Roman Empire, Corinth was famous for its mirrors. So what do we find? 1 Corinthians, this is the mention of mirrors in 1 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians mentions mirrors again, 2 Corinthians 3.18. No other book of Paul's letters mentions mirrors again, but he mentioned it once each in these books where he was writing the Corinthians, famous for their mirrors. He draws up this illustration because it would be one that they would very certainly relate to. So Paul drew upon this image of a mirror to represent the partially completed New Testament as through a mirror dimly.

I think the King James translation calls it a glass, but in fact they didn't have glass mirrors. What they had was a polished piece of metal and they didn't know how to keep it from tarnishing. So often the mirrors would come with a little polishing cloth attached to them. You'd have to repolish the mirror every single time you wanted to use it, in order to make it shiny enough because it would get corroded on the surface. So that's what he means by through a mirror dimly.

This mirror has not been polished yet. It's tarnished. I can't see myself in it. So only about five of the books were completed. All the different things that we think about in the New Testament just barely had a start. Here's some quick examples. Most teaching on being identified with Christ has yet to be written at this point in time. Has it been taught? Yes. But has it been explained fully? No. Are there other verses?

Most of them. All of the teaching about having been seeded with Christ, having citizenship, and setting one's mind on the heavenlies would take another decade and a half to show up. Or here's another one, having been blessed with every spiritual blessing, another decade and a half before that would show up. All these truths were things that they didn't have.

Right now, at this point in time, they're looking through a mirror dimly. They can't see it very clearly from the New Testament. Can you imagine living as a believer and just it was simply not taught in the letters that were available? that you're seated with Christ in the heavenlies. It was not explained very thoroughly at this point in time that you've been identified with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating. All those things were yet to be explained. It would only come at the last couple of books of the Bible that we would have verses like this.

Here's Jude chapter 3, excuse me, Jude verse 3. where he finishes the verse, I urge that you contend earnestly for the faith, and that's a term, the faith is a term that starts in Acts chapter 6, which was once for all. He used one word to spell out once for all. Once given perpetually valid. That's what it means. Handed down to the saints. Done deal. The very next book, the last book, the very last chapter In chapter 22 is a warning about someone adding to the words of this book. Finally, you start to see words towards the end of the New Testament indicate that's enough. It's been handed down, don't go adding.

Then we get a clear message. But now, as Paul is writing, most of the New Testament, over 20 books yet to be written, The other uses of mirror in the New Testament, and there are three uses total, also represented the Word of God. 2 Corinthians 3.18, and James explicitly here, James 1.23-24, this is where James talks about he who looks into the Word and forgets is like the one who sees himself in a mirror and forgets what he looks like. So James is very clear that the mirror represents the Word of God. The complete New Testament clarifies, which by the way both Paul and Peter wrote, writing with clarity, writing with clarity. So this through a mirror dimly and then seeing face to face.

That's the transition. The New Testament revealed so many things about Christ and about the church that were not at all revealed in the Old Testament. They had all the Old Testament, all 39 books. And it was great! Paul quoted from them repeatedly, even in this book that we're studying here. But, there were still things they didn't learn.

Even going back to the end of the Gospels, here is Christ And remember, he's on the road with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. And they don't know who he is. And what does he do? He sits down and explains to them, based on all the Old Testament scriptures, beginning with Moses and with all the prophecy, explain to them the things concerning himself in the Old Testament.

Yes, Christ was in there, but yet there was still truth that needed to be spelled out. They didn't know, without the New Testament, what it meant to be in Christ. They had no idea that they were going to be, once saved, a new creature, without the New Testament telling them. It's Paul's letters exclusively that talk about being sealed with the Holy Spirit. About being caught up, raptured, as we've termed it, based on the Latin. about being caught up with the Lord.

Old Testament just doesn't talk about that. That we're not under law, but under grace. Certainly the Old Testament isn't going to tell you that, right? To talk about the apostles, Paul writes to the church at Galatia, one of the earliest books, and he says, walk in the Spirit. And he goes on to talk about what that looks like, and what it doesn't look like.

There's no explanation of that in the Old Testament. baptized into Christ, Romans, Galatians. No idea what that means until you see this. The Jews had never heard of it. The entire Old Testament, for all of what it contains, and we've been through here in the main service studying Genesis and Isaiah, for all the wonderful things and valuable things that are in it, it does not explain these tremendous and precious truths.

Some have said that face-to-face means being face-to-face with Christ and seeing him in heaven. Some have said, well, maybe it means the second coming or something of that sort. The reality is, if you look up face-to-face, and boy, I tell you, these computer programs are great because you can't look it up very easily in the concordance in the printed version. The New Testament, it turns out, doesn't use face-to-face in that way.

But what it does do, is in 2nd Corinthians 3.18 where it also talks about mirrors. It talks about our beholding Christ now through the Word of God. Now, here, face to face, as we behold the Lord through his Word in the completed New Testament, the Lord uses that to transform us, to change us from glory to glory. He makes the point here in this passage that tongues will cease of their own.

I put here a picture of a tired battery, okay? Does a battery stop because you tell it to? No. The battery stops because it just runs out. That's the kind of use and word that Paul had here for this word cease for tongues. They'll just kind of run out. We'd use our term, I'm sure Paul didn't, run out of gas. It would just come to its own end of its own. It would cease. He didn't say in part, so it seems to have a separate time and means of ending. Tongues, by the evidence of both the Old and New Testaments, had a special purpose that was fulfilled in 70 AD when the Romans defeated Jerusalem and valid tongues ceased.

Now, I won't go into all the different reasons for that here. We haven't time for that. And some of it goes into a little bit too much detail. What I do have available is a three-page handout that will help explain all that. And so feel free to avail yourself of that. It's on the cabinet to the right as you exit this room. And so if you'd like to dig in more detail on that, feel free to do so. There is an additional handout, one page, on receiving the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts and when and under what conditions tongues was expressed. So feel free to have those.

If we run out, we'll make sure we get them out via email to you. Now, this is a chart, the top portion of which is repeated from page one. But I want to get the picture together here. We said, now these three remain, faith, hope, and love. We put love at the top here because love is the one that never falls off. But faith and hope do because they're fulfilled.

Prophecy and knowledge are both done away by the completion of the New Testament, which was about 96 AD. So prophecy and knowledge are both done away with or cut off by this outside action. of the New Testament being completed. John wrote the book Revelation, which we're completing a study on in one of the electives here, completing it about 96 AD, and that was the end. And we mentioned earlier about how Jude and then Revelation have warnings about adding or coming up with different or new aspects of the faith.

Tongues ceases of its own by 70 AD. And by the way, every record that we have indicates that that's the case. First of all, this is the last New Testament book, the one we're studying, that mentions tongues. It ends. And so no more discussion of it, and also historically it drops out in any valid representation.

Now, We might ask the question, all right, we've got this passage, is there any other indication that this is the case? Any other confirmation that the apostolic era gifts ended with the apostles? Well, I believe there is. You've got it on page two, and the first passage we'll look at briefly here is Ephesians 2, 19 and 20, where he writes to the believers at Ephesus, and he says, you are fellow citizens with the saints, and you are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. That's the apostles and the gift of prophecy, right?

Now, let me tell you, if you're going to build a building, at some point you stop building a foundation, right? I mean, if you have a building and they just keep building foundation, you think, boy, these people are crazy, right? No, you build a foundation and you want it to be a good one, but then after that you want to build the building. You put the building on top of the foundation. You don't keep going with the foundation up and up and up and up.

That's, I think, one of the key illustrations that Paul uses. It's there for a good start. By the way, you want a good foundation. One of the things we used to tell people when I was in the engineering office, skimp on the paint, skimp on the roofing, skimp on the carpeting, skimp on the flooring, do not skimp on the foundation. Bad place to skimp. Ask the guy who built that leaning tower over there somewhere.

The next one, Hebrews 2, 3, and 4. It says there, it was, and it's referring to salvation, at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard. The implication from this passage There is that the confirmation by the writing of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, which was about 67, 68 AD. He was looking back at that point to this confirmation.

God also testifying with them by both signs, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will. At this point in time, Those miraculous gifts and demonstrations were referred to even by about a dozen years after the book of 1 Corinthians was written in the past tense. Even by that time, it was more a matter of looking back than saying it is being right now confirmed. Galatians, which is written about 49 AD, so then does he who provides you with the spirit and works miracles among you do it by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Again, it's one of those, this happened in the past, prior to the Hebrews passage, and we could look at others.

I would also suggest taking a look, we won't go into it now, 2nd Corinthians 2.12, the signs of an apostle and The signs of an apostle are that they do signs and wonders and miracles. So when the foundation of the apostles is done, the signs that go along with them also end. One of the points that Paul's making here, spiritual gifts are for ministry in the church to express God's love through us to others.

Are there spiritual gifts that are valid and God intends for today? Absolutely, most certainly. Each one of you here this morning, if you are a believer, have at least one spiritual gift. But the gift is not for you to go around with and say, I have a spiritual gift. Isn't it great I have one? Aren't I great? I have one. That's not the point. The point is to use it. What's interesting is we have a tendency in our culture to give someone who's in my position this title pastor. Do you know that it only shows up as a noun one time in the whole New Testament? And never as a title?

But when Paul talks to the Ephesian elders for the last time, Acts chapter 20, what he tells them, get shepherding! He wants action. When Peter writes to the elders, In 1 Peter 5, he doesn't talk to them using some title. He also does exactly like Paul does. He says, get shepherding! I think God wants action more than titles. God's not interested in how important somebody looks. He is interested in His gift being used. It's His work. It's His accomplishment. It's His enabling. He wants action. He wants ministry. by those who depend personally upon him.

The spiritual gifts were not there to make the Corinthians look better, or to have one say, my gift's better than your gift. None of that at all. It's not a matter of hoarding my gift, making sure I keep it. It's a matter of using it for ministry until we see the Lord face to face.

They were intended, those spiritual gifts, intended by God to fulfill an earthly need of the Church for an eternal and far more glorious purpose. A temporary gifting for an eternal purpose in a love that would outlast the gifts. Will the gifts last, any of them? When that day comes, when we see the Lord face to face, I hope it's today, those gifts will all end. Every last one of them. Love will not. Love will not end. Love never falls off.

The gifts are not to be expressed in such a way as to say, I have this gift and it's better than your gift. It's not to be expressed in such a way that it puts anyone on any sort of a pedestal. The gift is given to be given out as a love ministry to others. That's why you've been gifted. That's why I've been gifted. It's a love ministry to others.

Matter of fact, it's useless hoarded. There was a guy I heard about one time. He went to the psychiatrist because he was having some trouble. Actually, he wasn't having too much trouble. Most of his friends were saying, you need to go get some help. And so he went and made an appointment, and the psychiatrist said, well, what can I help you with? And the guy says, well, I don't see what the problem is, but my friends say I have an issue. Oh, well, tell me about it. Well, they say I like pancakes too much. And the psychiatrist says, well, I don't see a problem with that. I like pancakes. The guy says, you do? Oh, I've got two trunks full of them up in my attic. There's no sense in hoarding these things any more than there is in hoarding the flapjacks in your attic. Gifts are to be used, not to be stored up and not to be put away. They're useful in motion and in no other way. They're for ministry.

What we do here and now, has a value for eternity. Isn't that great? It's not just a matter of waiting. Oh, when I go home to be with the Lord, then this stuff will all be over. No. What we're doing now, by God's intent, has purpose and value for eternity. That's why we have the spiritual gifts. So what's the take-home here? We ought to view our life here in view of eternity. Where's all this going?

If God's given us a gift, it's not just for here and now. It's not to make us look better. In fact, I don't even recommend you take any of those spiritual gift tests, even if it's software. Because the real issue is, what's the ministry going on? That's the issue.

What ministries is the Lord opening up in front of you? What opportunities is He laying in front of you? What the Lord's going to give us, and we put this before, the three things a prosecutor looks for. Motive, means, and opportunity. You're going to get motive, means, and opportunity as a believer. The motive will come from grace. Not, I've got to do this because I have to. I've got to do this otherwise the Lord will be mad at me. No, it's not that. You're not going to be guilted or oppressed into it.

The motive is grace. It's thankfulness. The means is the Holy Spirit, who enables, who energizes, and who empowers for any ministry that he's going to call you to. And the next is the opportunity. The opportunities are all in front of you. And it doesn't have to be an official action of the church. When you get up this morning, there's going to be opportunities all over the place here, and you're looking at them. You're looking at them. That's what he intends.

Love is eternal because it's God's nature. That's ultimately what's got to last. There is no expression of the Holy Spirit or the suppression of it that ought to take place outside of love. Love is what's going to last. Love is the reason for it. Love is why all this matters anyway. This love is what's going to last into our eternal home.

What the Holy Spirit does in and through each one of us is what's going to last into our eternal home when we go to be with Him. And right now, as we meet here this morning and at other times, beholding the Lord Jesus Christ in the complete Word of God, isn't that wonderful? The complete Word of God as in the mirror is how we behold Him right now.

If you look at 2 Corinthians 3.18, everything is right now. All the verbs. Now, we all, with open face, are beholding. And God uses that to transform us right now from glory to glory.

His Word. Love is forever. that He expressed when He loved and He gave there on the cross. It doesn't end. Matter of fact, what's amazing, we were pointing out in the Revelation elective this morning, even in new heavens and new earth, they continue to call Christ the Lamb. The Lamb. Because He loved and He gave, as Paul said in Galatians 2. He loved and He gave, as Paul wrote in Ephesians 5.

And He loved and He gave, as John 3.16 says. For the joy set before him, the love he had for you, he endured the cross.

That kind of love. That's what lasts forever. We've been given these gifts to minister to one another and to express right here and now that love that will never end. Any expression of your spiritual gift, any expression of love here on this planet has an eternal purpose. It keeps on going.

You see, Jesus made the point, you can't store up your riches here, but you can send it ahead. Okay? Send it ahead. Let's do that, okay? Let's go to our Lord. Lord, as we look at the perspective that you have here, and all the things you've blessed us with, even things for one another, so many things, they will come to an end. Keep us mindful of what will last, and most of all, keep us mindful of you. Draw our hearts to behold you each day, and even as we gather here this morning. and to be transformed by the Holy Spirit working through your word. We just thank you for the abundant blessings. In Jesus' name, Amen.